WICHITA, Kan. — After a close loss in the first game, the Newman softball team rallied with one of its best offensive performances of the season in the nightcap to split its home-opening doubleheader against Rockhurst Wednesday afternoon at Newman Softball Field.
The Jets (7-15) cut the lead in half as soon as the Hawks (7-11) went in front in the first game of the season in Wichita, but they couldn't get any closer in a 2-1 loss. In the finale though, Alyssa Taylor smacked a home run to tie things up after Rockhurst went up on a shot of its own, and the Jets clicked from there to secure a 7-2 victory.
Taylor's homer — a line drive deep over the fence in left-center — led off the bottom of the second inning after the Hawks' Lexie Zuniga put the guests on the board with a home run in the top of the inning. That stroke keyed an offensive outburst for the Jets, who added to the lead on Delaney Hiegert's two-run single with two outs later in the inning.
Mikayla Medbery singled to start the third and eventually stole home on a double steal with Courtney Sartin, and Taylor added a second RBI on a groundout to make it 5-1 after three innings. After the Hawks snuck one more run across in the fourth, Newman added a couple of insurance runs in the fifth, as Taylor Mannis beat out an infield single, followed by singles from Medbery and Sartin to load the bases. Taylor knocked in Mannis with a single to left, and Katie Ingles' single was enough for Medbery to score and up the lead to 7-2.
Ingles also added a superb outing in the circle to pick up her third win of the season, as she went the distance, scattering seven hits and walking none while striking out six. The senior stranded multiple Rockhurst runners in both the first and the fourth innings, and after the Hawks cut the lead to three runs, she retired the final 10 batters she faced, setting the guests down in order in each of the final three frames.
The Jets cracked 11 hits in the game, the fifth time they've hit double digits in a game this season, with Medbery leading the way with a 3-for-4 effort. Sartin added a 2-for-4 game, and Taylor was 2-for-3 with three RBIs.
The Hawks slid by in a pitcher's duel in Game 1, as neither team scored through the first five innings. Newman starter Kate Smith allowed a runner in each of the first six innings, but wasn't threatened until the fifth, when she worked out of two-on, one-out situation to keep the game scoreless. Rockhurst scored twice in the top of the sixth to take the lead, and although the Jets worked a run when Mannis reached on an error, advanced to second on a wild pitch and moved up to third on Medbery's sacrifice bunt before scoring on Sartin's single to right, the hosts couldn't get the tying run across.
Smith worked around nine hits, allowing just the two runs and no walks while striking out three. Sartin was 2-for-3 with an RBI to finish the day 4-for-7.
The Jets are back on the road this weekend, heading to Oklahoma Christian for a three-game conference series Friday and Saturday.
